Via Southgate: Radio seized for interfering with police transmissions

In Texas, authorities cracked down after a hand-held radio caused emergency interference with police transmissions.

Mike Askins KE5CXP speaking on ARNewsLine said that it had operated for months on emergency frequencies used by the Young County Sheriff’s Office. According to local media reports, the transmissions on the dispatch channels often included the voices of a man, woman and some children yelling at one another and the sounds of a barking dog.

A story in the Olney Enterprise newspaper said that the police were so hampered in using their own assigned frequencies that they often had to use cell phones instead to communicate.

Sheriff Travis Babcock contacted the Federal Communications Commission which provided him with an official statement to read on the emergency channel but that failed to bring the transmissions to a halt. The news report said that on July 8th two officers patrolling in their car heard the unauthorized traffic and were able to track down the radio and its owner.

It was not clear what charges would be filed against the owners of the radio, which is now the property of the county sheriff’s office. Charges could range from a misdemeanour for interfering with public duty to a federal offense for interfering with emergency communications.

Read more – Southgate Amateur Radio News RSS Feed http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2022/august/radio-seized-for-interfering-with-police-transmissions.htm
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